STREETS AND HOUSES
control of his pastors and masters, was prepared to bear his part bravely in the reckless expenditure and wild excesses which he found to be the fashion among his fellow-writers. Lord Valentia, writing in 1803, of the young writers' training in Calcutta, said—
"There are few of these young men who do not keep their horses, commonly their curricles, and, in many instances, their race-horses, which, together with the extravagant parties and entertainments frequent among them, generally involve them in difficulties and embarrassments at an early period of their lives."
The costly champagne suppers of Writers' Buildings were famous, and long did the old walls echo to "the joyous songs and loud rehearsing tally-hoes" of many generations of writers. Gradually, however, there came a change; the age for entering the Company's civil service was raised, the period of a writer's stay in Calcutta was reduced, and, at last, writers were no longer provided with quarters, but lived with friends, or in lodgings at their own expense.
For some years Writers' Buildings remained deserted; then the sets of apartments were let to private individuals and for offices. The next change saw them occupied as Government offices;
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